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Lowest Bid Is a Problem for a College

The dilemma facing Westchester Community College is familiar to government agencies and private companies alike in an era of scarce resources and rapidly escalating construction costs.

Eager to begin work on a $40.5 million center dedicated to preparing the county’s growing immigrant population for professional careers, the college opened construction bids last month.

Worth Construction of Bethel, Conn., was the low bidder.

The good news was that Worth had a reputation for completing projects on time and at budget. The bad news was that the company and its president, Joseph Pontoriero, also figured in a long-running federal investigation into contract corruption in Connecticut.

And Worth lost a $46 million highway contract in New York two years ago after the state comptroller ruled it was not a responsible vendor because, in part, of its “long history of association with organized crime.”

Officials at the college and in Westchester County have been faced with a difficult choice ever since. No one wants to hire a company operating under any kind of cloud. But Mr. Pontoriero has not been indicted or convicted of any crime. His company is one of the top contractors in the country, with plenty of work in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

“There’s a lot of pressure in the public sector to take the low bidder unless there’s something drastically wrong,” said Joseph N. Hankin, president of the college.

Indeed, New York law often requires the hiring of the lowest responsible bidder.

The college already had to scale back the size of what it is calling the Gateway Center project to stay within its budget. Worth’s bid to be general contractor was nearly $1 million lower than the next-lowest bid.

The Gateway Center, the first new building in more than a decade on the school’s main campus, in Valhalla, will house an English-language institute and a professional development center for immigrants, as well as business and modern language departments.

Mr. Hankin said that he knew nothing of Worth or Mr. Pontoriero. He said the college and the county were reviewing all bidders before awarding the contract, sometime in August or September. Officials have quizzed Worth about a variety of issues, according to a lawyer for the company, and the county has contacted the state comptroller’s office about its investigation of Worth.

Alvin Goldstein, a lawyer for Worth and Mr. Pontoriero, called the allegation of organized crime connections “utter nonsense.”

“No one established anything,” he said of the federal investigation.

In the past, government agencies have refused to do business with companies they determined to have a troubling background, or have insisted that the company hire an independent integrity monitor to ensure there is no wrongdoing on the job.

But in New York City, where the number of companies capable of large high-rise construction is limited, there has been a willingness to forgive transgressions. Structure Tone remains one of the country’s top contractors despite having pleaded guilty in 1998 to an extensive bid-rigging conspiracy in New York City and paying a $10 million fine.

Another company, Laquila, is doing the excavation and foundation work for the Freedom Tower at ground zero, even though its founder, Dino Tomassetti Sr., is under indictment for making thousands of dollars in illegal payoffs to union officials over a 10-year period and has been barred from obtaining city contracts. But the developer Larry A. Silverstein hired Laquila, and the state approved it, after Mr. Tomassetti put his son in charge of the project and gave an independent monitor access to his books.

Mr. Pontoriero formed Worth 29 years ago and built it into one of the top 400 contractors in the country, according to Engineering News-Record, an industry magazine. He was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1986 trial of Anthony Salerno, a boss of the Genovese crime organization. Worth was disqualified from bidding on New York City school projects in 1998 after it refused to answer questions about whether Mr. Pontoriero had any relationship with organized crime and about the company’s finances.

Still, Worth obtained contracts for work on the Triborough Bridge in New York City, on Consolidated Edison plants and a $20 million state contract to build a hospital wing at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a state prison in Westchester County.

The company came into the public spotlight again in 2001 after Mr. Pontoriero and Worth became embroiled in what began as a federal corruption investigation of the former mayor of Waterbury, Philip A. Giordano. The relationship between the two men was a prime reason that the F.B.I. sought permission to secretly tape Mr. Giordano’s telephone calls. But the wiretaps caught Mr. Giordano arranging sexual liaisons with two girls, then 8 and 10, leading federal prosecutors to put aside the corruption case to try Mr. Giordano for sexually abusing the girls.

Mr. Giordano was convicted and sentenced to 37 years in prison. During his trial in 2003, he testified in federal court that Mr. Pontoriero gave him thousands of dollars in cash, free trips, expensive suits and Super Bowl tickets at a time when Worth was doing work for Waterbury and competing for additional business. F.B.I. agents also testified that Mr. Pontoriero was an associate of the Genovese crime family.

Asked about the status of Worth and Mr. Pontoriero, Tom Carson, a spokesman for the United States attorney in New Haven, said the investigation was “ongoing.”

The uproar that ensued over the Giordano case led Mr. Pontoriero to withdraw from a contract to build a technology center on the Waterbury campus of Naugatuck Valley Community College. But he weathered a similar situation in Putnam County, where Worth is building a $27.5 million courthouse. Vincent Tamagna, a county legislator, unsuccessfully sought to make Worth hire an independent integrity monitor.

The Legislature “was afraid it would inflate the cost of the project to have another layer of review,” Mr. Tamagna said in an interview. His position, he said, “was the most fiscally responsible stand.”

Robert J. Bondi, the Putnam County executive, said that the Legislature made the right decision. The county hired a construction manager to oversee the project, which came in on time and at budget, he said.

Alan G. Hevesi, the former New York state comptroller, cited the testimony against Mr. Pontoriero, as well as his business partnerships with organized crime figures, in 2005 when he refused to award Worth a highway contract. Mr. Hevesi said that he would approve the contract only if Mr. Pontoriero resigned and Worth hired an independent monitor to oversee its conduct.

Mr. Pontoriero refused and vehemently denied that he had done anything wrong.

Asked about Worth, Robert Whalen, a spokesman for the current state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, said, “We would hope that any party that contracts with Worth Construction would monitor the project closely and with due care.”

As for the Gateway project, the lawyer for Mr. Pontoriero, Mr. Goldstein, said: “The contract should be awarded to Worth. They’re the low bidder.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on page A25 of the New York edition with the headline: Lowest Bid Is a Problem For a College. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe